M&Ms
by oXXb00kw0rmXXo
Summary: I crouched in front of the walls that protected The Gallagher Academy, hidden by the shadows. I had lost my tail in New Jersey, but was secretly hoping that someone had continued to follow. Someone that could save me from this infinite torture.


Here is M&Ms, a tragic little story about what I think _really_ could have happened during Code Black. :) A little bit of Rachel/Solomon, maybe even a bit of Zach/Cammie if you count what I borrowed from the book. Thanks to **celiacprincess** and **Dernier Cri** for beta-ing! I kind of got the idea after rereading Cross My Heart, but the true inspiration came after I realized how often these little candies were brought up. In LYKY, she takes a (green) one from the dish in her mother's office. In CMH, Zach offers her.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Gallagher Girls or anything else you recognize. I also do not own the passage involving the school ball and Code Black. Furthermore, I do not own the delectable M&Ms or the quote from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's/Philosipher's Stone (the movie) which is appropriately pointed out. Enjoy!

* * *

The dark night fell over me, but I adjusted quickly. I always had. I was forced to adjust. It was part of a spy's life. I'm Cam Morgan, Cam the Chameleon. Or at least, I used to be. Now I'm Christopher. I hated my cover name with as much intensity as one could. I wanted to be Cam again. But I hadn't been Cam for almost four years.

With a pang in my heart, I thought of the other Cam – my Cammie, my daughter. Was she a chameleon? Was Joe teaching her well? And had she ever kissed a boy? I wanted to know the details, if she had – how else could I hunt down said boy to question him?

I crouched in front of the walls that protected The Gallagher Academy, hidden by the shadows. I had lost my tail in New Jersey, but was secretly hoping that someone had continued to follow, someone I hadn't caught. Someone that was my friend, someone that could save me from this torturous business of betraying and hiding.

The security was very good. I had watched for days, and I knew that it was tight. What surprised me was that there were _boys_ at the school. Had they changed their rules since I had been at Blackthorne? Had they merged the schools? After listening, I found that the boys were part of an exchange program.

The lights were on and music drifted towards me. Ballroom dancing, I guessed. I remembered Rachel once mentioning that they had attended culture classes. Plus, many girls had been talking about dresses and makeup throughout the week. It must have been part of an exam.

Rachel. Oh, it really hurt to think about her. She probably thought I was dead! Had she moved on to others? Was she dating? Maybe even remarried? What if – and it pained me to say this – she had a relationship with Joe? That was like one of the bad movies Rachel and her friends would watch while Joe and I hid out in a different room, where the girl dates the boy's best friend.

Joe had been my best friend, but now he believed that I was dead. Everyone did. In my watching, I had eavesdropped on so many conversations that a normal person would have lost track (for the record, it was 371). I could recall with perfect clarity when a group of chattering girls had passed.

* * *

"_I can't wait for the ball! I hope I can dance with Grant," one of them gushed and the others laughed._

"_I doubt you'll be able to. Bex has him wrapped around her little, British, butt-kicking finger. And Zach's out of the picture, too. He's after Cammie," her friend responded. Cammie? My Cammie?_

"_What a shame. She doesn't even like him! I think she's boycotting guys after what happened with her boyfriend last semester." Cammie had a boyfriend?_

"_But Zach is one determined boy," the first one commented. "So is Mr. Solomon."_

"_What do you mean?"_

"_I saw him and Mrs. Morgan flirting again! They're such a cute couple, aren't they?" The other girl rolled her eyes._

"_But they're not a couple!" she pointed out. "I think we'd know if they were."_

"_What do you mean?"_

"_Cammie would freak out and tell her roommates. And then Bex would go kick Mr. Solomon's butt, Liz would start looking for the engagement ring, and Macey… well, she'd be looking through magazines trying to help Cammie find the perfect outfit for the wedding – not that Cammie would be happy with her."_

"_They don't need to be getting married to be a couple."_

"_Yeah, but – oh, shush, they're coming! And they're together!" I looked the same way the girls looked. Joe and Rachel were strolling across the campus, chatting quietly. Joe said something with a raised eyebrow and Rachel laughed. I felt a pang. Rachel shoved him playfully and he twisted her wrist around, as a spy would. But instead of completing the Stroganoff Maneuver (which was first invented by a chef who was protecting his perfect stroganoff from thieves trying to steal the recipe), he twirled her around until she faced him._

_  
__Rachel's skirt flew out and she smiled at him when their eyes met. But she quickly averted her gaze to dig through her bag. She pulled out a bag of M&Ms – our favorite. It had been the only food on our first date. We had met during a mission, but while being locked in a three by two closet for six hours, we grew hungry. We both pulled out our emergency food supply and found that it was the exact same thing. The Valentine's Day M&Ms. We dated briefly after that and married only three months later._

_A spy's life is often short. No time can be wasted._

_Joe reached into the bag of M&Ms and stole three greens. My heart twisted with jealousy. Green had been my favorite. She always saved them for me._

_Rachel held the bag out of his reach and they struggled momentarily for control. Suddenly, Joe was holding the candy, and Rachel was not._

"_I win," I heard him say faintly, smugly._

"_We'll see about that," she said cheekily, turning around. "Come to my office around eight and we'll have a nice, homemade meal." I smiled, but involuntarily gagged at hearing "homemade meal." Rachel's cooking was not so good._

"_See?" the girls said. "They are so going out! It's like a movie!"_

"_Don't you think Cammie will be mad when she finds out? She was close to her dad. I heard that when she was making up a cover story for her boyfriend, she used her dad's birthday as her own."_

"_I also heard that she didn't realize it was her dad's birthday until is passed. Cammie is totally unaware of guys, especially Mr. Solomon."_

"_She had a boyfriend last semester!"_

"_And she's still oblivious. Besides, Mrs. Morgan can hide her secrets just as well as we can."_

_It made me wonder how well I could hide the hurt from myself._

* * *

My mission was to infiltrate Gallagher Academy and get the alumni disk. I had tracked it to Rachel's office. Carefully, I made my way through the laser security and into the cameras' blind spots. This mission was too easy. Much, much too easy.

I scanned the office carefully. It was perfectly and completely Rachel's. A dish of only green M&Ms lay on her desk. My stomach was growling, so I snuck a few in my mouth.

The disk was too easy to find. It only took five minutes to search the entire office, and it was in an envelope that said in bold letters, **COVE OPS EXAM**.

I picked up the envelope and dashed out the door. I wanted to get a glimpse of Cammie before I left, but she wasn't in the ballroom. I would know – she was wearing a red dress.

How do I know that? Well, I _am_ a spy. I overheard someone gushing over how beautiful Cammie's dress was, even though it stood out far too much for someone like her.

I hurried down a darkened hallway, now hoping to get out. I could have given myself up, let myself be found… but then my family would be in danger, and I couldn't let that happen. I stopped short when I heard two voices speaking – but I couldn't decipher the words before sirens blared and "CODE BLACK" rang through the school.

I dropped the envelope and ran for it. The two students hurried away, yelling to each other as paper bins flared and flames erupted, burning the precious records to piles of ash. Emergency lights flicked on.

"I thought those were for decoration!" the boy yelled and a voice that had changed so much, yet so little, made me stop again.

"If everything goes right, they are." It was Cammie. I ran around to get a sight of her (ignoring the bra that lay on the ground) and almost gasped. She looked so much like her mother that it was stunning. My baby girl had grown up and I had not been there to see.

I followed her and the boy as they traveled through the halls, tracking them. The boy turned at a corner and I frowned. He was going to get her in trouble! A teacher stopped her and I held my breath, praying that I wouldn't be caught. But that wasn't a problem, for the teacher was too preoccupied telling her off.

I was too close to Cammie, only a few feet away. If she turned in one direction, twisted her head the slightest bit, I would be found. It was too quiet for me to move without being heard. I held my breath, waiting for the inevitable. I glanced around, looking for a way to escape. I blanked when I saw Rachel standing on a banister above. Her eyes glinted and she acknowledged my presence.

"Cameron! Come up here. Now!" she ordered and Cammie fled. I sagged against the wall, relieved. The teacher narrowed her eyes in my direction and pulled me up roughly. With a roll of duct tape she found nearby, she tied my hands behind my back and led me to my inevitable doom.

Cammie left Rachel's office and I was brought in only moments later. She hadn't seen me and Buckingham (I recognized her now) crouching around the corner. I was shoved into a chair while Rachel looked at me, obviously upset.

"How dare you," she hissed. "How dare you impersonate my husband and break into this school! This school of perfectly innocent girls and the boys participating from our exchange program!"

"I'm not impersonating anyone," I said calmly, as a spy would. I took a deep breath. I wasn't lying right now. This was only truth. No need to make them think I was deceiving them. Joe sat beside Rachel, but kept his distance. "I can prove it to you!"

"No, you can't," Joe commented lightly. "Because Cam Morgan is dead. If he wasn't dead, he would have returned years ago."

"It's me. I swear on my life that it is."

Joe glared at me, rising out of his seat. "Cam Morgan would never let his family and friends mourn for him when they didn't need to!" he sneered. "He never would have let them stew and worry and cry! He never would leave his family and leave a daughter so emotionally crippled!" I stared at him in wonder. "Get good, or get dead. That's what I tell my class all the time. And you know what? I think she's getting good. Cam Morgan was good. Rachel Morgan is good, too. It's in the Morgans' blood. But you… you are not Cam Morgan."

"And how would you know _that_?" I spat, annoyed. My wrists wiggled, trying to get out of the duct tape.

"Get good, or get dead. It looks like you're choosing the second one and like I said, Cam Morgan was good." I fell silent and stopped trying to get loose. With an anger like none I had ever felt before, I rose to my feet. It probably looked like a bad spy movie, with me being all tied up.

"If I'm not Cam Morgan, than you are certainly not Joe Solomon," I growled. "Because I _know_ that Joe Solomon would not go out with his best friend's wife, even if that best friend was supposedly dead. Aren't I right, Joe?"

"I am not trying to take your wife!" he insisted, but Rachel blushed and he took a wary glance towards her.

"So does that mean that I'm Cam? Because if I'm not, Rachel's not my wife." Joe looked from me to her and walked over stiffly. He grabbed me by the collar and brought me close enough so that I could see the seriousness in his eyes. Interrogation time.

"What's your full name?"

"Cameron James Morgan."

"When is your birthday?"

"November 17th."

"What is your favorite kind of M&M?"

"Green. Because Rachel and I were locked in a closet on our first mission together and we got sick of all the little pink and red ones from Valentine's Day, so on Saint Patrick's Day, we got green M&Ms. That was our second date and it's the only kind I eat anymore." Joe shoved me aside and I stumbled, but did not fall.

"Cam, what are you doing here? Where have you been? What happened?" The defeat was apparent in his eyes. I smiled grimly.

"I failed the mission," I said quite simply. "I never came back. I _died_. Well, that's what you all think. It's true, of course – except for that last part. They captured me; they gave me a new identity. I did what they wanted me to. I'm the best spy they have – no one's better, that's why they wanted me. I only do it because if I don't… let's just say that they know more about Rachel and Cammie than I could ever want them to."

Rachel pursed her lips.

"You're trying to tell me that you made me believe you were dead to _save_ me?" Her tone was incredulous. I nodded.

"Yep. And hey, can you pass me an M&M? I'm starving." Rolling her eyes, Rachel tossed a chocolate in the air. I caught it in my mouth, no problem, and winked at her. She laughed and I felt like a teenager again, trying to impress my date.

"The things you learn while in captivity," she giggled. It had taken me two hours in that closet to get the trick perfect.

"I keep in practice."

"We ought to go," Joe said to Buckingham as he picked up his jacket. His body was tense, but he smiled at me. "I'll see you tomorrow, Rachel. Cam, I'm under the impression that nobody, including Cammie, is to know. Correct?" I sighed.

"It's for her safety. The less she knows, the safer she is." He nodded curtly at me. When the door closed behind the two teachers, Rachel slowly rose out of her seat. With a pair of scissors, she snipped through the tape.

"Tough stuff, isn't it?" she commented as it fell into the trash. "Sticks together no matter what."

"Yeah," I said quietly, thoughts racing through my mind. "Do you want my fingerprints, just to double check?" Rachel shrugged.

"Why not? Come here." She grabbed my hand laid it on her bracelet. Then she scanned the bracelet with her computer. She watched the screen carefully.

"It's you," she whispered. "It's really you." Without warning, Rachel spun around and hugged me so tightly that I thought I would choke.

"Cam! Oh, Cam!" she cried, before pulling back and slapping me. I clutched my face in shock.

"Ow!"

"Why did you do that to me? You have no idea how many tears I've spilled over it! How much it hurt Cammie!"

"I'm sorry," I told her. "But what was I supposed to do? Let them kill you all?" Rachel didn't answer. "At least I didn't move on to your best friend." She slumped into her chair, with her hands in her head.

"Gallagher Girls never fall for the bait," she whispered. "But Blackthorne Boys are perfect for dates. My friends and I made that rhyme up when we found out about you boys. Well, and when we saw you." I chuckled. "What am I going to say to Joe? I like him, I really do, but even he can't replace my husband."

"He looked like he was going to. The students think you're dating." Rachel blushed.

"He's taken me out a few times. We went dancing," she admitted. "But we weren't on a real date. We were tracking Cammie. She snuck out to go on a date with her secret boyfriend."

"So, naturally, everyone knows about it," I concluded and came to sit on her desk.

She laughed again. "How many times have you watched the Harry Potter movies in the last few years?"

I shrugged. "Hey, I needed something magical in my life, especially when I couldn't see you."

She rolled her eyes. "Getting corny now, are we?"

"Actually, I haven't had corn on the cob in ages!" Rachel laughed and hit me playfully on the shoulder. But her eyes were sad, just as much as they were excited and joyful. An uncomfortable silence fell.

"You need to go, don't you?" I nodded. "They want you back. What will they do if you failed a mission?" she asked.

"Nothing," I lied. "Nothing at all. They don't mind – I'm still the best."

"I'll walk you out," she whispered sadly. "Will you come back?" I pondered this for a moment. Would I? Could I?

"Yes," I decided, but knew it would be an empty hope. "I will."

* * *

The darkness was almost blinding by now. The skies were pitch black. But, stars flickered and the moon shone, the soft light skimming the snowy white campus. I ran across that campus, shivering in the cold. I didn't look back at Rachel, who was standing at the doors with tears in her eyes. I didn't look back at Joe, who was standing beside her with a tissue in hand. I didn't look back at the happy couple that I knew twirled and laughed with each other when they thought nobody was watching.

I could never come back. I could never get away from the inner workings of this organization that captured me and forced me to work against my own family. Even more, I could never come back to see everyone moving on with their lives while I am trapped in the past, with only memories to console me. I could only pray that my work brings me near.

My fingers wrapped around a Ziploc baggie of green M&Ms and the roll of duct tape I had stolen from Rachel's desk. With numb fingers, I taped the bag shut, so that I couldn't open it without a laser (or a Gallagher Girl). I took the second bag Rachel had given me and downed it one by one, savoring the taste.

Green M&Ms were Cam's favorite. But I wasn't Cam anymore. I was Christopher. So, with a sigh, I set down the chocolate and hid it away.

I adjusted quickly. I always had. I was forced to adjust. So I did, even if it meant giving up my M&Ms, my family, and my friends.

The stars disappeared and the sun rose, the night before only a mere memory. I burned it from my mind, made it vanish, made it turn to ash, just like the papers during Code Black. M&Ms could only fix so much.

* * *

**I never noticed how sad this fic was until I was about to post it. Oh, well. I worked to hard to let it go to waste! I hope you liked it, leave a review and let me know (please!). I even have anonymous reviews allowed, so all spies in training can be covert and not sign it (but I'd like it if you could, because I like to reply to you guys!).**


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